Wednesday was another good day of parent conference. I appreciate you taking the time to come and talk.

First grade authors chose a favorite small moment to start to fancy up.

In math we work with a topic called equality. Students looked at a number sentence and decided if the sentence was true or not.

Say: 3+4=8

If the sentence was not true they could change the sentence in anyway they wanted to make it true. We used i-ready, where kids work on math at their own level. We also worked with doubles facts. Did you know that first graders should know their facts to 10 by memory and have strategies to efficiently find the answers to facts to 20 by then of the year.

In our reader’s workshop lessons we worked on comprehension by retelling our stories, practiced reading fluently with our good fit books and poems and on Friday we looked for interesting words to add to our vocabulary wall.The book character pumpkins have been lots of fun! Thank you so much for your help. We made a KWL chart about Mexico with things we know and want to learn. This week we read: Mexico, Pete the Cat and the Train, The Very Terrible Dragon, and more.

Next week are having a Mystery Reader visit. On Tuesday, Oct. 31st we will do reading with flashlights in the morning. First graders will put on their costumes at 1:45. The whole school parade is at 2:00 and our room mothers have organized a Halloween party to follow. We are going to plant a winter crop outside in our class garden – garlic! We’ll also We’ll learn about the Mexican holiday Dio de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Have great weekend! Mrs. O.

To see all of the Book Character Pumpkins check out our class blog.1-olearningtree.com

I enjoyed conferencing with many of you on Wednesday. Ilike talking about one of my favorite subjects – your children – my students .I look forward to meeting with the rest of you next Wednesday, September 25th.That day we have another early release at noon. Last Friday we released our second monarch butterfly. On Monday we watched our third monarch butterfly come out of its chrysalis. At the end of the day we set her free.Some of our read alouds were: Gotta Go, Gotta Go to Mexico, about a monarch butterflies travels, Isabella and the Butterflies (about a girl who lives in Michoacan , Mexicio who has an oyamel fir tree, the kind the monarch butterflies go to in Mexico), Fuego Fire! About Fire fighters, The Bee Tree, Honey Bees, I am a Frog,Black Bears and The Honey Tree, and Pumpkin Circle, about the life cycle of a pumpkin.We are learning a little Spanish at morning meeting. So far we’ve worked on:

On Wednesday morning Mrs. Schulthess, our guidance counselor joins us for morning meeting. This week we learned how our bodies feel if we are nervous or worried (tense – tight). We learned how important it is to breath if we are upset. Next week we’ll learn more strategies to help with worries and fear. In our mini lessons in Reader’s Workshop were overviews of the four main areas in reading - comprehension, accuracy, fluency and explanding vocabulary.

Mrs.Phillips came on Tuesday and brought a bee keepers suit, smokers, bee keeping tool, bees wax , molds, honey and more. She shared lots of facts about bees. Ask your child how many eyes does a bee have? What are the three types of bees? How does a bee tell other bees where the flowers are?

Here Is the BeehiveHere is the BeehiveBut where are all the bees?Hidden away where nobody sees.Watch them come creepingOut of their hive,One and two and three,four, five. ~Anonymous poem printed from the Poetry Foundation Website

We played a giant tic tac toe game with Honey Bee trivia and rolled bee’s wax candles. Many thanks to Mrs. Phillips​for helping us have so much fun learning about bees!

Our butterflies have led us to be interested in Mexico. Where is Mexico? What’s it like there? What animals live there what do they make? We’ll find out in the our next Unit of study - Mexico!First graders enjoyed their preview time at the book fair looking at books, making a wish list. The purchasing time for our class is our normal Library time on Tuesday at 1:25. In writer’s workshop we are choosing a piece to fancy up and reviewing our upper case letters. In math we worked with odd and even, facts and with ordering numbers from least to greatest.Enjoy this wonderful weather. Have a good weekend!

On Tuesday came in to find that our first Monarch butterfly came out of its ChrysalisWe watched it through out the day and in the later afternoon, we took the butterfly outside and released it. Our butterfly flew straight up and then headed south on down South Road on its way to Mexico. This was our first intervention week. Everyone was enthusiastic about working with their small group and their coach.

We shopped for new books in our classroom library. I conferenced with students Working on their individual reading needs.

In math this week we worked on i-ready twice in the Tech lab. We started using Front Row in our classroom as well. In math we worked with a twenties frame as well as the concept of odd and even. We worked with sorts and words. Mrs. Schulthess joined us for our first Open Circle – social learning group. She will join us for morning meeting on Wednesdays.

Mrs. Philips is coming Tuesday afternoon to teach us more about honeybees.

This week we read Honeybees by Gail Gibbons, Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger, The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco.

Today we had our Fire prevention day. The East Kingston Fire Departmentshared Fire Safety tips and showed us some of the equipment. We shared ourFire Department time with our Reading Buddy Class 3/4 W. I will put some of the pictures on our website this evening.

I look forward to seeing many of you for conferences on Wednesday. Please remember that our early releases this year start at 12:00 noon. Students will still have a lunch, but it will be earlier than usual.

I have attached a goal sheet. Please take a few minutes and come up withtwo goals for your child; one for academic learning and one for social learning.You may send the sheet in or bring it with you to the conference. Thank you.